Town to Negotiate Tax Bill

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 29/11/2008

GRIMSBY have now paid off around £650K of their £750K tax bill, but are attempting to negotiate a new schedule with the Inland Revenue for paying off the remaining £100K. The decreased attendances at Blundell Park this season have meant that Town's budget does not stretch to the tax payments.

Town chairman John Fenty told the Grimsby Telegraph: "We are currently in the final year of paying off that debt under the plan agreed four years ago."

"But with gate receipts falling due to a combination of the credit crunch and the team's poor results at the end of last season and the start of this, we are now looking to try and reduce the repayments.

"We want to talk to the Inland Revenue and see if there can be a deferral of the current payment schedule and that would mean extending the debt into next season."

Grimsby's total debt is believed to be around £2m, despite the club making a trading profit of around £100K in the last financial year according to the figures which have just been released to shareholders.

The only reason Town made a profit last season was due to the Johnstone Paint final at Wembley. Unfortunately there will be no repeat this season which means the club's finances are once more stretched,

Fenty explained: "The value of Wembley to us in total was around £½-million and, overall, brought about a small profit in our figures."

The 117th Grimsby Town AGM will take place in the BT Lounge (formerly the Executive Lounge) at Blundell Park on Monday, December 22 at 10am

Grim Rob Says: Paying off the tax bill would be of huge symbolic significance to the Mariners. Town's long decline began when the tax mountain began to build up and has continued to this day. It would be nice to think that when the bill is paid off another chapter in Grimsby's history begins and the decline would be reversed, like a curse being exorcised. In the meantime all we as fans can do is try and give the club more of our money: go to an extra game, if you go to every game then take a friend to a game, buy the club's raffle tickets, buy some of your Xmas presents at the club shop, subscribe to Mariners World, buy some more shares in the club or whatever it takes to increase the club's revenue. Let's get that money paid off!

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